Internet is constantly changing the way people communicate and collaborate for various purposes. There was a time, I remember when files were shared using E-mails, USB drive, CD drives and even Floppy disks. There were many limitations of using such medias for communication. It was difficult for people in different part of globe to share files using physical media and e-mails only supported file size till 25 MB. Obviously, there were other options too but were more or less inconvenient, peer-to-peer file sharing for example (BitTorrent Protocol).
Today, the way people communicate and collaborate over the internet has completely changed. People cannot only share files using the internet, but can also collaborate to create and edit various types of documents such as word, power point presentations and spreadsheets. There are a numerous number of such file hosting services that runs in the cloud and provides an easy way of sharing files with other users.
Such file sharing systems are based on cloud storage. Cloud storage is a form of distributed computing where a large number of storage and computing devices are inter-connected with high-speed network to provide high speed access to data and data is replicated across the globe. Cloud storage basically offers storing data online instead of users storing it locally on their machine. There are many great advantages such as below.
1. Files are always accessible from a browser from any machine around the globe with an internet connection.
2. Users can browse and upload files from their mobile devices such as phone and tablets.
3. User files are always backed up at different locations (data centers) around the globe. It's way safe to keep important files in cloud and never lose them.
4. Files can be shared with others instantly with just few clicks.
5. Users can collaborate over the internet to create and edit various types of documents.
6. There is no practical limit on a single file size when stored in cloud.
Some popular file sharing services are Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Microsoft Sky Drive and Apple iCloud.
Hi Mehal,
ReplyDeleteI like keeping my files in the cloud so that I have a backup in the case of a hard drive failure. And that's because I rarely back up my stuff to my external hard drive even though I know that I'll be very upset if my hard drive fails and I forgot to make a backup of some important files on my computer. However, I try to keep sensitive data offline as the company I'm relying on to hold my files in the cloud might distribute my files to agency like the NSA if asked and then they would have access to something that only I should have access to.
Over all, great post. Your brief history of files used to be distributed/shared really brings into perspective the improved methods of file sharing common nowadays. You clearly showcase the benefits of Cloud storage and how it fits to the current methods of file sharing. Try reading your posts out loud because spell check does not catch all errors. One of your sentences sounded awkward to me (last sentence on your second paragraph).
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteWow really great post especially the starting paragraph I loved the flashback to when files where shared the old fashioned way. Your blog post certainly highlights and convinces why your reader should use cloud storage services.
If there is an aspect of your post that you could improve I would say that a link to an article with more information that a reader can go to after becoming interested in your post would be a nice addition to your blog. Keep up the great work!
Hi Mehal,
ReplyDeleteYour post is really interesting and informative. It is so true that file sharing has changed the way people communicate and share things over the Internet. It saves us a lot of time and cost to communicate on the Internet. To be honest, I used to store everything on my laptop, but I broke my laptop last year and I basically lost everything stored on that laptop. Since then, I've started saving everything on cloud. Also, one important thing about file sharing is that it allows to access our stuff whenever we want to as long as we can connect to the Internet.
Anyways, you created a great post. You just need to add some links to some statistics or some articles about file sharing. It would make your post even better and more interesting.
Very descriptive and informative regarding file sharing. We can see how easy it’s now a day for group of people working on the same project to share and modify the same file. They can distribute and provide access digitally stored information through cloud. However, we need to understand the legality of file sharing. File sharing is not illegal if the sharing of non-copyrighted material with permission of the creator is legal. However, the majority of peer-to-peer file sharing involves sharing copyrighted which is illegal. People distribute material without permission will be violating copyright law and is subject to penalties under the law.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with this post. I think you cover well the subject and did well at introducing cloud computing. Anyone can agree that the progress regarding how we share files is outstanding considering old methods for file sharing such as Floppy Disks now seem so archaic, but we are actually talking about just a few years back. There is just so much progress in technology development and what we can do with it. I'm really excited about all the products we will be able to use soon and how awesome it is to live at this time when so many innovations are emerging.
ReplyDeleteMehal, you point out many advantages of doing thing in the cloud. Collaborating and doing work on the cloud services is the way that people are doing things nowadays. I myself am one of those people who now cannot do my work efficiently with all those could services. I use drop box to keep my file on the cloud just incase my laptop ever break down. I use Google doc to collaborate with my group to write document and spreadsheet. I use Github to collaborate with my teammates by writing code. We now live in the world where essentially everything that we do are in the cloud. It is now an essential part of our everyday life. I would say that the only disadvantage of doing everything in the could is that you have to always be connected, but nowadays everyone is always connected to the Internet.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting approach to the topic of file sharing and highly relevant given the catalyst for this post--this course. The cloud is certainly a useful means of sharing files and the benefits of allowing collaboration are unequaled by any other file sharing framework. I certainly wouldn't call other frameworks such as torrents inconvenient, however. Torrents especially offer a unique way to share very large files (such as disc images as are common with open source operating systems like linux). While theoretically there is no practical limit on file size in the cloud, the various services impose limits in file sizes and almost always have caps on the total amount of storage you can have for a given price. Torrents and other peer-to-peer file sharing frameworks also take the workload off of servers by distributing it across the users' machines. Cloud storage is certainly an innovative and useful means for sharing files, but as with anything there are pros and cons that must be considered with it's use over other methods.
ReplyDelete